RE: XSLT real time use of XML to XML Transformation

Well I finally got this to work, thanks to all your help, some help from another forum, and the input of a code-guru coworker. Here's the solution I -we- came up with:

Firstly Two XSL sheets are better than one, this way its not necessary to run the XML conversion if your data source is already properly formatted.

So if this is our XSLT:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:output indent="yes"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:for-each select="//USER">
If you see <xsl:value-of select="."/> tell him this is the old tree.<BR/>
</xsl:for-each>
<xsl:for-each select="//AGENT/AGENTNAME">
If you see <xsl:value-of select="."/> tell him this is the new tree.<BR/>
</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

it references the following tree structure:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<DOCUMENT>
	<AGENT>
		<AGENTNAME>Agent Smith</AGENTNAME>
		<AGENTID>Asmith</AGENTID>
		<AGENTAGE>33</AGENTAGE>
		<AGENTSTATUS>Agent</AGENTSTATUS>
	</AGENT>
	<AGENT>
		<AGENTNAME>Agent Clyde</AGENTNAME>
		<AGENTID>Aclyde</AGENTID>
		<AGENTAGE>35</AGENTAGE>
		<AGENTSTATUS>Agent in Training</AGENTSTATUS>
	</AGENT>
</DOCUMENT>

Unfortunately sometimes the xml data looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<DOCUMENT>
<USER>Agent Smith</USER>
<CLIENTDATA>Asmith</CLIENTDATA>
<CLIENTDATA>33</CLIENTDATA>
<CLIENTDATA>Agent</CLIENTDATA>
<USER>Agent Clyde</USER>
<CLIENTDATA>Aclyde</CLIENTDATA>
<CLIENTDATA>35</CLIENTDATA>
<CLIENTDATA>Agent in Training</CLIENTDATA>
</DOCUMENT>

So we need to convert the data using another stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version="1.0">
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:output indent="yes"/>

<xsl:key name="data-by-agent" match="CLIENTDATA" 
use="generate-id(preceding-sibling::USER[1])"/>

<xsl:template match="/">
<DOCUMENT>
<xsl:apply-templates select="//USER" />
</DOCUMENT>


</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="CLIENTDATA"/>

<xsl:template match="USER">
   <AGENT>
     <xsl:variable name="thisagentdata"
       select="key('data-by-agent', generate-id())"/>
     <AGENTNAME><xsl:value-of select="."/></AGENTNAME>
     <AGENTID>
       <xsl:value-of select="$thisagentdata[1]"/>
     </AGENTID>
     <AGENTAGE>
       <xsl:value-of select="$thisagentdata[2]"/>
     </AGENTAGE>
     <AGENTSTATUS>
       <xsl:value-of select="$thisagentdata[3]"/>
     </AGENTSTATUS>
   </AGENT>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

And now let's put it all together, using an asp document that evaluates for a need to convert or not, then performs conversion and outputs to the final display:

<%
'fake variable for evaluation of xmldata source
dim oldXMLUser
oldXMLUSER = true

'create newSource variable
set newSource = server.createObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument")
newSource.async = False
newSource.validateOnParse = True

'load display stylesheet
set displayer = server.createObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument")
displayer.async = false
displayerfile = Server.mappath("postconversion.xsl")
displayer.load displayerfile

	'evaluate for conversion
	if oldXMLUser then

	'load the data
	set source = server.createObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument")
	source.async = false
	dataFile = Server.mappath("convertxml.xml")
	source.load dataFile

	'convert the data
	set xmlconverter = server.createObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument")
	xmlconverter.async = false
	xmlconverterfile = Server.mappath("preconversion.xsl")
	xmlconverter.load xmlconverterfile

	'define newSource
	source.transformNodeToObject xmlconverter, newSource

	else

	'load the data
	set source = server.createObject("Msxml2.DOMDocument")
	source.async = false
	goodFile = Server.mappath("goodformat.xml")
	newSource.load goodFile

	end if

'display final page
response.write newSource.transformNode(displayer)
%>

Phew! It works... yippy.

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